Start Here.
In the coaching world, they tell you “go tell your story” with so much gusto you can almost hear the cheerleaders behind them pushing you on.
Well-intended, but not exactly helpful.
Let me tell you a secret - I’m not a born writer. Far from it.
I don’t have an “I was destined to write” origin story. And I didn’t start writing a journal when I was 8.
Believe me, I wish I had, I’d love to read it now.
No, I fell into this malarkey by accident. I read a lot as a teenager, but writing was something other people did. I was just a consumer.
I taught myself to play with ideas and sort the wood from the trees with a history degree. I was obsessed with history, still am.
I realised that what I thought were my weaknesses are in fact my strengths.
It’s all a matter of perception.
Even though I’m getting old now, I'm learning every day.
I deal in ideas.
I love talking to business owners about their hopes and aspirations and turning them into stories.
Then I take those ideas and turn them into messages and stories.
Because stories sell. They’ve always sold. And always will.
I moved to France, learned to be French, expanded my intellectual horizons and started to see the world differently.
Through a foreign language, I came to know and love my own.
I learned my trade through hard work. More than 20 years as a translator and then a copywriter, improving every day.
Some people write because they loved it from an early age, some do it more out of obligation than love, and others learn to do it because they have a story that has to be told.
And that’s what it comes down to. Stories that have to be told.
Content, websites and email are just words, reaching people is what matters.
To sell is to tell a story, your story is worth telling.
Steve Jobs said creativity was all about joining the dots. Let's sort the wood from the trees and distil it into a message and a brand that will make you a star.
14 things you might want to know about me before going any further
Previously, I worked in travel and business information before starting as a translator and copywriter 20-odd years ago. I was a dogsbody in a market research company and I had paper rounds in the 1970s.
In fact, my first job was a milk round at the age of 13. In an age when you could still see milk floats driving around and you could still employ a 13-year old to work in them.
The job came to an end when I had a slight disagreement with a camper van and my employer got nervous. It turns out that employing 13-year olds and letting them work for tips was a bit dubious even then.
I lived in France for 20 years in all and went native. I pass for French in France.
I gained a love for French cinema, steak tartare and the Breton coastline from the experience.
I’m originally a London boy, but through a long and romantic sequence of events, I came to rest in Somerset. I’ll tell you about them if we work together.
I didn’t pass my driving test until I was 37 and learned in a left-hand drive car.
I have an unhealthy interest in seventeenth-century millenarians and experimental and leftfield music.
I’m a fiendish devil’s advocate who will see opportunities in your business that you won’t necessarily because you’re too close to it.
I’m learning Spanish and I’ve got a more thant 2500-day streak and counting on Duolingo. Expanding my mind.
I make a mean onion tart (that used to surprise the French!)
I used to sell birdseed. Wholesale.
I’ve also got a degree in History and French.
I may look older, but my mind hasn’t made 40 yet.